Counterfeit bus tickets surfacing in Pacaltsdorp

Published: Tue, 27 Mar 2018

The difference between the real GO GEORGE multi-journey ticket (left) and the counterfeit reproduction on the right is easy to spot. Apart from being printed on a glossy paper with a clear difference in colour, the fake tickets are a sloppy cut and paste effort.

A series of counterfeit GO GEORGE multi-journey tickets (MJTs) has been surfacing on bus routes in Pacaltsdorp. Passengers buying these poor reproductions at R60 instead of the normal R85, now face the consequences of their “bargain”, being denied access to a GO GEORGE bus when tendering a clearly counterfeit ticket.

GO GEORGE Manager, James Robb, appeals to passengers to be vigilant, and to make sure that they buy tickets from registered vendors only.

“At first, we were extremely upset that our passengers should fall victim to exploitation, but as soon as we started laying hands on the counterfeit tickets and heard that they had not been bought at the legitimate price, we realised things were not that simple. In the first place, GO GEORGE will never be sold at a discount price, and secondly, the tickets are such poor reproductions of the real thing, that we no more see the purchasers as victims, but as collaborators in the fraudulent scheme, trying to catch a cheap ride with a visibly counterfeit ticket,” said Robb.

“Spot the difference”

According to Robb, there is no way that a regular passenger could confuse the reproductions for the real tickets. “To counteract any attempts to copy our tickets, the MJT has been designed with an imbedded foil square carrying the GO GEORGE logo. These seem to have been lifted from old tickets and glued onto the photocopied tickets that have been cut out unevenly with scissors, with the back and front glued together. Some consist of a single paper layer, with no printing on the back. One thing all the counterfeit tickets in our possession at this stage have in common, though, is the ticket number 81396.”

Robb calls on the public to call the GO GEORGE Call Centre on 0800 044 044 with any information about the reproducers and the sellers of the fake tickets. All GO GEORGE staff, including bus drivers, have been put on alert, denying access to passengers with counterfeit tickets, and to identify the culprits. GO GEORGE will not hesitate to take action against anyone who is party to a fraudulent scheme.